Treatment of coffee.



LEO W. GEISLER, JR., 0]? NEW YORK, N. Y.

TREATMENT OF COFFEE.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 3, 1909. Serial No. 531,222.

Patented Jan. 16, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEO W. GEIsLnn, J r a citizen of the United States, and a IGSldent of the borough of Manhattan of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in the Treatment of Coffee, of which the following is a speclfication.

The object of the invention is to extract from the coffee its caflein constituent without destroying the aroma or flavor of the coffee or otherwise affecting the same, and also to derive the calfein from the extracted portion.

.Broadly speaking, my invention consists in boiling the caffein out-of the green coffee beans, extracting the caifein from the liquid obtained after the boiling, and then treat-- ing the coffee beans with said liquid after the caifein has been extracted. 1 have discovered, however, that it is desirable to bOll the coffee beans at least twice, that is in two separate installments of liquid, for in this way the extraction of cafi'ein I find can be most completely efi'ected; but that in the subsequent treatment of the cofi'ee beans with the decaffeinized liquor, that obtained from the first boiling is suflicient to employ.

In carrying out my improvements, I place the coffee beans to be treated in avat and add thereto substantially four parts of water foreach part of cofl'ee and bring the same to a boil which I allow to continue for about two hours. Then I decant the liquor and again add to the vat a like quantity of water and boil for about an hour. It is preferable to add, moreover, to the vat, upon' the second boiling, a small quantity of borax, as this serves to make the residual cafiein more easily soluble. After the second boil ing the liquor is again drawn off or decanted, and the liquor obtained from the first boiling, after being deprived of its contained cafl'ein, is added to the vat and the coffee is allowed to soak therein for several hours, say, over night. This serves to permit any aromatic ingredients which may have been removed from the coffee upon the first boiling, to be reabsorbed by the coffee again to a considerable extent. Thereafter, the cofiee beans are allowed to dry in any suitable manner and may then be roasted.

The decafleinizing of the liquor and the recovery of the cafi'ein, which constitutes the complementary part of the improved procto dissolve out the ca-ffein. It is preferable to add the chloroform at least two instalments (in-all about a pint forevery 15 lbs. of coffee treated), stirring well after adding each instalment of chloroform, and

then allowing the latter to settle and draw-- in}; it ofl. The liquor left after the chloroform has been drawn ofi is then ready to be added to the cofi'ee beans, as specified above.

To recover the oaflein which has been dissolved out of the liquor from the first boiling, as just described, the chloroform is simply distilled ofi, leaving the cafi'ein as a residue. ln'addition to this, however, the liquor remaining in the vat after the soaking ofthe coffee beans' is united with the liquor from the second boiling and these liquors are concentrated by being boiled down. Then, basic lead acetate isadded to throw down any vegetable matter contained therein. Finally, chloroform is added and any contained caifein is dissolved outand recovered, as before.

It will be obvious that various departures may be made from the process as herein described, while still retaining the spirit of the invention. Moreover, it will be understood that the decaffeinizing of the coifee is entirely independent of the recovery'of the caifein and either may be practiced in accordance with the invention without completing the other. And it will be imderstood thatthe solvents and reagents specified in the foregoing treatment may be replaced by others.

I claim as my invention:

1. The treatment of coffee which consists in boiling the green coffee in two dilferent lots of water, withdrawing both lots, removing the caffein from that lot of water in which the cofiee is first boiled then soaking the coffee in liquid from which caflein has move the caffein constituent, extracting the cafi'ein constituent from the liquor after such boiling, boiling the coffee a second time, and

soaking the cofiee thereafter in the liquor obtained from the first boiling and from which the caflein has been extracted.

3. The treatment of colfee which consists in boiling the same before roasting for about two'hours in about four times the amount of water to remove the cafiein constituent, ex-

tracting the cafiein constituent from the liquor after such boiling, boiling the coffee in another like quantity of water for about one hour, and subjecting the cofiee to the action of the decafieinized liquor from the first boiling for several hours.

4. llhe treatment of green cofiee which consists in boiling the same in water to remove the cafiein constituents, extracting the cafiein from the liquidafter such boil ing, boiling a second time, boiling down the liquor from the second boiling and extracting the cafiein therefrom and soaking the liquors from the first and second boiling for several hours.

This specification signed and witnessed this 2nd day of December, A. D., 1909.

LEO W. GEISLER, JR. Signed in the presence of Lnwis" E. VARNEY,- G. MOGRANN. 

